Conservatives rail that Social Justice Warriors are perpetually unsatisfied and unhappy, no matter what victories they win, because the act of kicking powerful others in the balls is what they are actually after. I doubt that.
Yet we are about to see, aren't we? Will they be happier or more angry on your FB feed? The next items up on the SJW list all cost somebody some money, involve kicking little people, or are merely symbolic. Beyond that, it's just coming up with creative insults for people they oppose. So we'll see what they are really made of now. My prediction is that a few will shine bright as day, most will be revealed as poseurs. The SCOTUS decision on gay marriage didn't change the facts on the ground all that much, but its symbolic value was enormous. Ditto the Confederate flag. What of substance is left? A move to $15/hr minimum wage hastens the arrival of robots - but maybe that truth can be obscured a while still. Corruption and the effects of foreign policy decisions might be stalled beyond the elections - but might not.
So now what? We all have predictions but none of us knows. Let us see what the data shows over the next 16 months.
Tangent, and I know this might draw the most attention: Without dwelling on the easy examples of Obama and Hillary in specific, it is simply a matter of record that the Democratic elite shifted its ground enormously in less than a decade, so that the responsible, measured position on gay marriage in 2006 became the evil bigoted position by 2015, without any new arguments being introduced or any evidence that they had actually thought deeply about the issue emerging. (I can back that up if necessary.) I can't read minds, so I don't know if they were simply avoiding the attacks and following the votes, or became convinced that they had always pretty much, generally, bravely, progressively, in-their-heart-of-hearts supported the idea, believing that we have always been at war with Eastasia. Are they cynical or do they believe their own lies?
I submit that the former idea is politically more tolerable to me - cynical manipulators are probably pretty good governors - but the latter is more spiritually innocent. If you are stupid enough to believe your own deceptions you are merely pitiable in terms of fitness for heaven and much can be done with you.
However, that is exactly the sort of broad spiritual question on which reasonable women might differ.
I predict that within a month, social justice warriors will be twice as angry, detecting numberless microaggressions so micro as to have never before been detected.
ReplyDeleteNew people will suffer punishments unusually dire, for micro aggression formerly unknown.
I've regularly read liberal talking heads admitting they believe (maybe hope?) many Democrat politicians say what is necessary to get elected, i.e. what the rubes want to hear, while fully planning to implement policies 180 degrees opposite of their stated positions. I think this goes back to the whole 'personally opposed to abortion' stance adopted by many Catholic Democrat politicians in the 1990s, and is common enough that the Instantman runs occasional 'rube self-identifies' squibs when a liberal complains about Obama and others adopting a conservative policy they campaigned against.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you that I've had the same attitude toward gay marriage that I had when I was a teenager. It's one of the most consistent positions of my life, surviving changes of party, economic theory, view of federalism, income level, religious affiliation, marital status, you name it.
ReplyDeleteThe only problem I have with the current atmosphere is the attempt to force other people to approve of gay marriage socially or religiously. The attacks on bakers and so forth disgust me no end.
I think it's almost definitional that the social justice warriors will not be happy.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote a post in the last couple months about this happening with fad-ish medical stuff...every wave leaves a few people definitively better off and lots of other hypochondriacs with something else to worry about.
I feel that way about gay marriage. I have quite a few friends who will absolutely consider themselves better off and happier after this ruling. Most of these people are either in a SSM or love someone who is. They'll be content.
Those who make an identity out of outrage will double down as a59 up there said.
Also, based on nothing, I think Obama was more sympathetic than he would admit and Hillary just saw the wind blowing.
Just in terms of economics, you get more of what you reward, right?
ReplyDeleteIt's really simple. Whatever the Tribe wants, we get.
ReplyDeleteNo one dares oppose the Tribe. Both 'left' and 'right' worship it.
It was because the Tribe backed 'gay marriage' that Conservatives stopped opposing it.
Andrea, I didn't realize the Cleveland Indians had that much power.
ReplyDeleteIf this is true, Chief Wahoo has been a much more powerful figure than I ever imagined.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I fall much more in the spiritually innocent camp because Obama and Hillary's path loosely follows my own... you can make the argument that, as America in general grew to accept gay marriage as a concept, those politicians followed suit out of self-interest. Or you can assume that they simply developed different feelings as things went along. I think the longer one thinks about it, the more persuasive the "why does government get to decide what marriage is"/"this hurts some people and helps no one"/"what's the harm, really?" arguments become.
I recognize that I feel differently about this than I did before, and without even having sound bytes played back to me from seven or eight years ago. The issue didn't change, but I did, and I'm not bothered by that. I would feel more bothered if the opinions I felt strongly about at 18 had never adjusted at all.